The invention relates to a milk meter for milking installations for the direct measurement of the amount of milk given by a cow during milking, having a separating chamber to which a vacuum is applied for the separation of the air from a milk-air mixture, and having a milk measuring chamber which is connected to the air separating chamber through a permanently open inlet aperture and has two sensors situated at different levels one above the other whereby discrete quantity measurements can be performed as the milk constantly flows into the air separating chamber, and the air separating chamber is equipped adjacent its floor with an outlet opening which can be closed by a valve.
A milk meter of this kind has already been proposed in U.S. application Ser. No. 266,036 filed May 22, 1981 wherein the total amount of milk yielded by the cow during milking is determined by the summation of successive individual partial quantity measurements.
In this method of measurement it is not important for the outflow to be always constant, so that the shape of the milk outlet opening is largely optional and it can be large. In this method, too, the milk meter can be made in especially small dimensions, since the accuracy of measurement is independent of the level of fill.
In the prior proposed meter, the accuracy of measurement is impaired by the fact that a complete separation of the air from the milk in the separating chamber fails to be achieved due to the short time the milk stays in the air separating chamber, and the milk taken up by the measuring chamber has a relatively high air content.